


A Place Beyond This

by juvjuvychan



Category: Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Child Death, F/F, Implied Relationships, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-14
Updated: 2014-02-14
Packaged: 2018-01-12 07:48:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1183734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/juvjuvychan/pseuds/juvjuvychan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Andrea is in awe of Michonne and not for the reasons you might think.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Place Beyond This

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this forever ago but I still like to pretend this happened instead of what happened in last seasons finale

Andrea always thought swords really made that snikett sound she’d always heard in the movies. That sharp metallic ring that cut through the air with a vibrating clang at the end. Watching Michonne with her weapon however, taught her how naive such thinking was. When Michonne swung her sword in that glorious arc there was no sound. Nothing but silence save for the soft sound of flesh splitting apart, and a now dismembered head falling to the ground with a heavy thud. 

Andrea almost envied Michonne for her grace, yet at the same time, felt strangely honored to witness it. 

“Where’d you learn how to do that,” she asked curiously. 

Michonne didn’t even glance over, eyes ever diligent keeping her guard up at all times as she dragged their two walker caddies behind them. Andrea wasn’t really sure what to call them, caddies seemed a good enough term, considered they were typically shackled with their heavier supplies. Andrea had tried, a few times in fact, to pump Michonne for information about the two but she never gave an inch. 

That was alright though, they were still new to each other, new to their partnership. In time, they would learn to trust each other, Andrea could feel it. Maybe it was because Michonne had saved her where the others left her, maybe it was because she could see Michonne shared similar scars to herself. Maybe it was because they worked together like a well oiled machine. Something just clicked between them. 

Andrea was almost shocked at how well they balanced each other the first time they faced a large walker attack. They could sense each others movements, anticipate what the other would do and work off that instinct. They were a damn near flawless pair. With her gun and Michonne’s sword, they were near unstoppable. 

“Did you know how, well, before?” Andrea pressed again. They never really talked about Before, though they never really talked much at all. Andrea did, mostly meaningless junk that amounted to nothing real, but it filled the time when they weren’t trying to survive. Made things feel slightly more normal, or as close to normal as you could possibly get in a world like this. 

“No.” Came Michonne’s simple, clipped answer. Andrea was about to inquire some more when they heard a cry in the distance. 

It was faint, but shrill. It shrieked in pain, the kind of pain that came from teeth tearing into skin, bone being broken, from the horror of watching you body being ripped apart. The cry of someone being eaten alive. 

Andrea had heard it a few times by now, and though she never thought she’d get used to it, she felt herself grow numb to it. What surprised her was how quick Michonne took off following the direction of the noise. Andrea dashed off after her without a second thought. 

“Wait up!” She cried to her companions back, but Michonne either didn’t hear her or didn’t care. To consumed in her mission of the moment. When Andrea finally caught up she almost ran right into Michonne’s back. “What the hell?” She panted, hands braced against her knees. Andrea looked up and a shudder crawled along her spine. 

There were three walkers all fighting for a piece of what was once a woman’s body. The sight was grotesque as she watched them gnawing at her flesh. Blood curdling around their mouths as the sick sounds of rotten teeth dug into skin, muscle and tissue. It was mindless, an act they didn’t even seem to gain pleasure from. They just ate for the sake of needless eating. Nothing more, and nothing less. 

Michonne took a step forward and in a flash all three walkers were dead. Heads rolling onto the street of the neighborhood they had found themselves in. Andrea moved towards Michonne when a rustling from the brushes alerted them both into action. They twisted around quickly ready to face another walker when instead a little girl stumbled out clenching her arm. 

Her face was covered in blood, dirt, and tears. Andrea assumed the now dead woman had been her mother, and the cry they heard had been this little girls. She looked broken, eyes wide and sunken. 

Worse still, she’d been bitten. 

It was like seeing Sophia all over again. That overwhelming feeling of helplessness washed over Andrea’s body. Making her movements slow and dulled. They’d have to kill her, objectively Andrea knew that. She knew that. And she wondered if this was how Rick felt, when he stepped forward when none of them could, and shot Sophia. Sophia. Right through the forehead, ending her misery and only starting theirs, and most likely prolonging his. 

She wondered if his nightmares resembled hers any. Or if his demons, or Carol’s, or Lori’s, or T-Dog’s, or Glenn’s, or any of them. If any of them were even still alive. 

But she didn’t have time to wonder, they had to deal with the problem at hand. 

“It’s not a problem.” Michonne’s cool, collected voice resonated throughout her body. Offering a sort of balm on the chaos swirling in her mind. 

“Wha—”

“I’ll take care of it.” She said cutting Andrea off. Was Michonne just going to kill the girl without a thought? The world was already cruel, did they need to contribute to that even more?

But no, once again Michonne surprised her, as she always did. She knelt down to the little girls eye level. Putting down her sword and reaching out her hands. “Hey darling.” She said softly as if she was calming a wounded animal. And Andrea supposed she was really, that’s all they were anymore to walkers, animals to be prayed and fed upon. They made no judgments even when it came to children. Perhaps especially when it came to children. “It’s alright honey, it’s okay.”

The little girl sniffled, a small pathetic sound that broke Andrea’s heart. 

“Mama?” She sobbed looking over at the mutilated and half eaten body of her mother. Andrea was struck once again with how unfair the world had become. That children like Sophia died for no reason other then that they were scared. That Carl had to learn how to shoot a gun because otherwise he could die, and worse because, his parents or his friends might be the ones trying to kill him. That this little girl had to die because something happened in the world to make everything go crazy. 

This wasn’t a world for children, not anymore. 

“It’s all right now,” Michonne said cradling the girl in her arms now. “It’s all right now,” she repeated gently stroking her hair. The crying only grew worse as the little girl shook and sobbed in Michonne’s arms. Every now and again repeating the same pathetic plea of ‘mama’. They sat their for a long time, Michonne holding her, rocking her back and forth gently, Andrea keeping watch over them. Near awed that something so gentle and kind could still exist in this world. 

Eventually the girls eyes began to droop and Andrea could see the affects of the fever running its course through her small body. Michonne tipped her head back so she could look into her eyes. 

“Now it’s going to be all right okay?” She asked and the child nodded sleepily. “You’re going to see your Mama very soon.” 

The little girl smiled a tiny worn smile that made Andrea want to cry. “Really,” she asked with so much innocence it felt wrong against the landscape they were faced with. 

“Yes, really.” Michonne answered, carefully taking her head in her hands. “I promise.” With that she snapped her neck so quickly Andrea didn’t have time to flinch. Though she did anyway. 

Michonne got up and Andrea could see the near tremble in her hands. 

“I had to do it.” She paused. “I couldn’t….I couldn’t let her…”

“I know.” Andrea replied with as much honesty and earnestness as possible. She wanted to make sure Michonne knew she didn’t judge her. She’d done what Rick had done, be kind in a cruel world. And she had done it as gently as possible. With so much compassion it reminded Andrea a bit of Dale and Glenn and Carol. Compassion that seemed as dead as the monsters they ran from day and night. 

Wordlessly Andrea stepped closer to Michonne, resting a hand on her shoulder in what Andrea hoped would convey some comfort. To let Michonne know Andrea was here for her, in every way, she was here to help shouldered the burden they’d found themselves having to carry. She hoped Michonne could feel the same way about her. That Michonne could learn to trust her, and believe in her, the way Andrea did in her. 

Michonne was a cool, calculating warrior and Andrea was lucky to have someone as skilled and competent as her watching her back. She was also a ray of compassion in a dank world of death, blood and pain. Andrea was just grateful she got to see both sides. She hoped to learn more about her, that they could trust each other inexplicably And one day, find a group, settle down, be able to create something, a place where children could exist again. 

Quietly, Andrea removed her knife from her belt, bent down, and jabbed it clean and precise into the child's head.


End file.
